Skip to main content /WORLD
CNN.com /WORLD
CNN TV
EDITIONS


Palestinian teen killed

Palestinians
Palestinians hold up victory signs on Tuesday as sirens wail in protest of the creation of Israel  


JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A Palestinian teenager has been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers, the Palestine Red Crescent has confirmed.

The latest death -- as the teenager was reportedly throwing stones at Israeli troops -- came as Palestinians began burying victims of Tuesday's "Day of Catastrophe" protest marches.

Four Palestinians died and at least 200 were wounded in the confrontations with Israeli forces across Gaza and the West Bank.

Later, an Israeli woman was killed and her father was injured when Palestinians opened fire on their car in the West Bank, the military said.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in processions to mark Al Naqba, or "the catastrophe," the Arabic term for creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Across the Palestinian territories, the marches turned into confrontations with Israeli soldiers at roadblocks and outposts.

The Israelis fired tear gas, rubber-coated spheres and live ammunition at Palestinians, who were throwing rocks and firebombs, as Palestinian gunmen fired from buildings.

 AUDIO
Kessel

CNN's Jerrold Kessel: Israeli army is on the offensive

472K/43 sec.
AIFF or WAV sound
 
 VIDEO
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres spoke with CNN after Arafat's speech (May 15)

Play video
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Watch Arafat's speech on the 'day of catastrophe' (part 1) (May 15)

Play video (Part 1)

Play video (Part 2)

Play video (Part 3)
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)
 
 GALLERY
TEST Palestinians mark Al-Naqba
 
  ALSO
 

Funerals for the four Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were scheduled for midday Wednesday.

Hospital officials said 73 Palestinians were taken to hospitals in Gaza, and 136 were treated in West Bank hospitals.

The Israeli woman killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank lived in Rimonim, a settlement about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the site of the incident.

The military said Palestinians opened fire on her car near the settlement of Maale Michmash, along a road through the Judean desert used mostly by settlers. Her father was slightly injured.

The passenger seat of the small white van was soaked with blood. The hood of the vehicle was riddled with bullet holes.

After nightfall, there were heavy exchanges of fire between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli forces near the Palestinian town of Bethlehem and the Jewish settlement of Psagot in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Israel's army says it will investigate Monday's killing of five Palestinian policemen by Israeli soldiers. Palestinians say the attack was unprovoked.

As violence flared, the Palestinian Authority called for the resumption of negotiations with Israel based on the findings of an international commission blaming each side for the violence.

The Mitchell Report is the product of a fact-finding commission led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

It asks both sides to halt the fighting and calls on Israel to stop construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. It does not assign blame for the violence.

Palestinians say they want it to form a basis for renewed peace negotiations.

Israel also endorses many -- but not all -- of the commission's findings. It has rejected the report's recommendation to freeze Jewish settlement construction in disputed territory.

The Bush administration has also stepped up its face-to-face contact with the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Secretary of State Colin Powell met for more than an hour today with Arafat's top deputy.

President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, attended part of the meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, which was held in the State Department.

A State Department spokesman said: "It was an extensive discussion of all the issues in the region."

The session marked the highest-level discussions between the U.S. and the Palestinians since Powell met with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat during a trip to the Middle East in February.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said they had an "extensive discussion of all the current issues in the region, including the violence, the economic problems and the need to find a way back" to the negotiating table.

A PLO official in Washington says Abbas had planned to ask the Bush administration to find a mechanism that would end Israel's control of Palestinian lands.

Powell appealed again for an end to the violence and said "we need to pursue the opportunities,"' presented by the Mitchell report and a joint Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative.

The report was submitted last week to the Bush administration, which then gave the findings to Israel, the Palestinians and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. It has yet to be made public.







RELATED STORIES:
RELATED SITES:

 Search   

Back to the top